MDEA 2014 Jurors

The Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA) competition is the medtech industry's premier awards program. Mee the distinguished jurors from various specialties, including clinicians, designers, and engineers who judged this year's entries.

Tor Alden is principal of HS Design, a product development firm specializing in the medical and healthcare marketplace. Alden has expertise in new product development, design research, strategy, project management, and new business development. During his more than 20 years in product design and development, Alden has received more than 30 patents and several design awards, including MDEA, IDEA, CES Innovations, and Good Design honors.

Yadin B. David is the founder of Biomedical Engineering Consultants LLC, a Houston firm that provides assessment of medical technology management operations, regulatory compliance, and forensic engineering services for hospitals and industry worldwide. For 25 years, David headed the biomedical engineering department and the Center for Telehealth at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

Ross Donaldson, MD, MPH, CTropMed, FACEP, is director of the Emergency Medicine Global Health Program at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and holds appointments in the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Featured on CNN, BBC, NPR, and other media outlets, he is the critically acclaimed author of The Lassa Ward, a memoir about international humanitarian work, and the creator of WikEM, a smartphone application for emergency clinicians.

Craig M. Jackson, PhD, operates a San Diego–based consulting practice and serves as the program director for The Hartwell Foundation, a foundation supporting innovative, high-risk research related to diseases in children. He has written more than 75 original papers, contributed to more than 30 textbooks, writes regularly for both professional and trade journals, and holds several patents.

Raj Khandwalla, MD, MA, FACC, is a board-certified cardiologist practicing with the Cedars-Sinai Medical Group (CSMG) and Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. In addition, he is codirector of the CSMG Heart Failure Program, which has pioneered the use of biomarkers and handheld ultrasound to optimize therapy and reduce hospital re-admission rates.

Stephanie Kreml is a principle at Popper and Co., were she develops and implements business strategy for startup companies and new business units in existing companies. She consults in the areas of clinical need, commercialization, and technology assessment; performs due diligence for investment and acquisition targets in the life science industry; evaluates unmet clinical needs and technologies; and provides guidance to accelerate new product development.

Jonathan Y. Lee, MD, ABEM, is the quality improvement director at Scripps Mercy Hospital, a tertiary care, level-one trauma center in San Diego. He has also served as the chairperson of the Emergency Medicine Department and education director. Lee has volunteered for numerous disasters and charities including International Relief Team, International Latin American Concerns, Scripps Medical Relief Team, and Disaster Medical Relief Team.

Pascal Malassigné, FIDSA, is the senior professor and chair of industrial design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. He is a career research scientist and industrial designer at the Milwaukee Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an adjunct assistant professor of rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is among the foremost designers of assistive and wheeled mobility devices.

Richard Meyst is president and CEO of Fallbrook Engineering Inc., an Escondido, CA-based contract product design, development, management, and engineering services consulting firm specializing in healthcare products. He is also president and CEO of Cellection Systems, a startup company commercializing a cord blood collection product for cellular therapy.

Mary Beth Privitera is the director of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center’s Medical Device Engine, a design team aimed at optimizing medical device design. She holds a joint appointment as
associate professor with the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine and College of Engineering and Applied Science. For the past nine years, she has also been the codirector of the university’s Medical Device Innovation and Entrepreneurship program.

Mark S. Vreeke, PhD, is a cofounder of the Chemical Angel Network, which brings together entrepreneurs and investors who are working on growing companies with a strong chemistry component. His specialties are in the broad areas of medical devices and diagnostics, information technology, and energy transportation. Vreeke is also a founding partner at enterprise software firm Rational Systems and has worked at several medical device and diagnostic firms.

George L. Walls is the director of product and market development for ZOLL, an Asahi Kasei Group company. For more than 25 years he has led innovation teams across multiple disciplines to develop, launch, and market advanced technology and medical devices. Walls previously worked for St. Jude Medical and Laerdal Medical Corp and holds several patents.